Skip to content or view screen version

Plowshares action in the Netherlands

nn | 13.08.2005 09:59 | Anti-militarism

A 52-year old Italian peace activist disarmed two F-16 fighter airplanes last Wednesday. He managed to reach the planes unseen and used a hammer to damage the planes and the control system. He was caught and arrested as he was hammering on the second F16. The damages is said to be millions of euros.

The action was a protest against nuclear weapons, in the week of the 60th anniversary of the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Dutch F-16's can be used to drop American nuclear weapons, of which 20 are stored at Volkel Airbase. Woensdrecht Airbase is used for training F16-pilots and for repair of F16's.
The activist, who has been doing peace protests for some 25 years, has told the police what he has done and is now being held at a prison in the south of the Netherlands, awaiting his trial at the 1st of September.

nn